B. Only invitationals that meet the criteria in Article I Section 7 and championships that meet the criteria in Article XXI Section 5 and state qualifying tournaments shall count for points.

C. Only two-person teams are eligible.

SECTION 2: Unique Teams

A. A unique team is a team where neither member is also a member of a higher ranked unique team. In the event that a debater is a member of two equally ranked teams, one of those teams shall randomly be named unique.

B. Non-unique teams shall be ranked, but their ranks will be enclosed in parentheses on the rankings.

C. A team’s rank equals the number of unique teams that rank higher than it plus 1.

SECTION 3: Invitational Tournaments

A. Adjusted field size shall be calculated using the following formula:

(Open Field Size) + (JV Field Size) / (3) + (Novice Field Size) / (3)

B. Points shall be awarded for reaching elimination round at an eligible tournament based on the chart below:

C. A tournament should break between 27% and 45.3% of its open field. The following penalties are applied (to breaking teams only) if this percentage is different:

[3.4% - 4.7%] 6 point penalty

[4.8% - 6.7%] 5 point penalty

[6.8% - 9.5%] 4 point penalty

[9.6% - 13.4%] 3 point penalty

[13.5% - 19.0%] 2 point penalty

[19.1% - 26.9%] 1 point penalty

If a tournament breaks over 45.3% of the field to elimination rounds, the first elimination round will count as an additional preliminary round for point purposes. No other changes will be made to the points earned by advancing teams.

D. A tournament should have a minimum of 5 prelims. The following adjustments are applied (to breaking teams only) if the number of prelims is different:

B. Tournament that do not hold a final round, but break to semifinals, will be assigned points based on the “Without Elimination Rounds” scale. Semifinalists will receive points based on their record, including the semifinal round as a loss or a win.

C. Teams advancing after walking over a team from the same school will earn half of the points normally granted for advancing to the next elimination round. The other half of the points will be added to the total points earned by the non-advancing team.

E. If a tournament fails to break at least 1/3 of teams in competition to elimination rounds, teams placing in the top 1/3 of competitors will receive points based on their preliminary round record, following the points which would be allocated to them in a tournament without elimination rounds.

F. If a tournament does not break teams to elimination rounds that reasonably should have broken, and the Tournament Director confirms the improper break, those teams excluded will receive points for the first elimination round.

SECTION 5: Championship Tournaments

A. Points for competing in the NPDL Tournament of Champions shall be as follows:

ballot = 2 points

break = 2 points

elimination round win = 4 points

championship = 2 bonus points

B. Points for competing in CHSSA, OSAA, and other state qualifying tournaments shall be as follows:

State qualifier: 8 points

State alternative: 4 points

C. Points for competing in a CHSSA, OSAA, and other state championship tournaments shall be as follows:

win = 3 points

championship = 2 bonus points

D. The points awarded under this section shall not count toward NPDL-TOC qualification (see XXII) and shall not be added to the rankings until March 2 or later.

SECTION 6: Team Rankings

A. The total point value for each team shall be calculated using the diminishing marginal returns formula, as follows:

(points from best tournament performance)(1) + (points from second best tournament performance)(0.9) + (points from third best tournament performance)(0.6) + (points from fourth best tournament performance)(0.3) + (points from fifth through seventh best tournaments)(0.1)

Points will not be factored into the formula from tournaments beyond the seventh best.

B. Each team shall be listed on the rankings under the name of the school the debaters on that team attend (including non-member schools). Hybrid teams shall list both schools.

SECTION 7: Individual Rankings

A. A debater's individual rank equals the hypothetical team rank that debater would have obtained had they attended all tournaments with the same partner.

B. NPDL will only publish the individual rank of debaters whose point values put them in the top 30 of the overall rankings.

SECTION 8: School Rankings

A. Only NPDL member schools are eligible to be listed on school rankings.

B. Each member school shall be ranked based on the sum of all unweighted points of all its teams (including non-unique)

C. The points for hybrid teams shall be split between the debaters' schools.

SECTION 9: Reporting Results

A. NPDL will calculate rankings based on the results made publicly available on Tabroom.com by the tournaments. NPDL does not commit to independently verifying whether these results are accurate. If a student does not compete under their school name, NPDL does not commit to independently verifying that student’s actual school unless this information is reported to NPDL (see sub-section B).

B. If results from a tournament are not publicly available on Tabroom.com or if the publicly available results are inaccurate or incomplete, tournaments and members of the public are encouraged to report the correct tournament results to npdlboard+WEBDIRECTOR@gmail.com . If NPDL determines that the information provided in these reports is correct, it will revise the rankings accordingly.

C. The NPDL will provide a window of 30 calendar days from the date of the end of a tournament to report results. Results received after 30 calendar days will be ruled ineligible for inclusion in the national rankings.

B. An at-large application will not be considered if it is from a team consisting of two members who are qualified under Section 1 (“Point Cut-offs”). Any other team may not compete in the TOC unless it receives an at-large bid.

A team may submit an application that does not contain the materials listed above, and those materials that are submitted will be scored, and any omitted materials scored as zero points.

Anonymity

a. In an effort to keep student identities anonymous to reviewers, round recording files should be sound only and not contain any identifying information. Sample cases should also contain no identifying information. Submitted files should be named as follows:

b. Round recording files should be named [Student1 First and Last Initial-Student 2 First and Last Initial Recording]. If the recording is from a tournament, the name should also include “Tournament.” Descriptive information for the video will be submitted in the application form.

c. Sample case files should be named [Student1 First and Last Initial-Student 2 First and Last Initial Case].

d. Failure to follow anonymity instructions will result in ZERO points being awarded in these categories.

D. Review of materials. The Board will designate a committee of coaches and community members to assess round recordings and sample cases. The names of the members of the committee will be made public before at-large applications close. Cases and recordings will be assigned for review by two committee members who do not know the applicants. All objective categories will be scored by the TOC director. The TOC may withhold from scoring any submission that violates the anonymity requirements, and may invalidate an entire application if an applicant has made a material misrepresentation.

E. The applications will be scored according to the following formula:

5. Round Recording (10%)

Recordings from tournaments or practice rounds are acceptable. Speeches other than those given by the applicants do not need to be included. Applicants should not be identified by name in the recording.

6. Sample Case (7.5%)

Entrants should submit a sample affirmative and negative, written jointly, on a topic to be issued when at-large entries open.

F. Notification

The process for at-large notifications and acceptances shall be decided by the director, and announced in advance of the opening date for applications.

ARTICLE XXIII: BOARD ELECTION PROCEDURES

SECTION 1

To be eligible to vote in Board elections, a school must register for NPDL membership at least 72 hours prior to the start of Board elections.

SECTION 2

At least 24 hours prior to the Board elections, all candidates in those elections must be provided a list of representatives eligible to vote in the election.

ARTICLE XXIV: LEAGUE MEETING PROCEDURES

SECTION 1: Videoconferencing

Representatives from schools that are located in the same region that a regular league meeting is held in may not vote in that meeting remotely.

If a regular league meeting is held at a tournament, representatives from schools that attend that tournament may not vote in that meeting remotely.

All other representatives may participate in and vote in regular league meetings via a teleconferencing platform chosen by the Chair.

ARTICLE XXV: MEMBERSHIP REGISTRATION

SECTION 1: The NPDL membership registration form shall be the document in Appendix B. The Secretary may modify the text of Appendix B upon giving notice to the Board. The Secretary shall create an online membership registration form based on Appendix B.

SECTION 2: To register their school for NPDL (see I.8) or to renew membership the head coach should email a completed membership registration form to npdl.board@gmail.com . Alternatively, the head coach may fill out the online membership registration form (see Section 1).

SECTION 3: Membership must be renewed annually. A school’s membership registration/renewal shall expire on November 30 of the following season.

SECTION 4: The term of a student representative shall expire no later than June 30 of the season when they were selected. The adult representative may create a procedure for removing or replacing the student representative prior to June 30 (see II.3).